This blog is dedicated to sharing the concept that our hands are essential to learning- that we engage the world and its wonders, sensing and creating primarily through the agency of our hands. We abandon our children to education in boredom and intellectual escapism by failing to engage their hands in learning and making.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

from Stanley Kunitz

Certainly the old dualism that dominated my thought in the beginning has long since evaporated. I am no longer conditioned to celebrate the triumph of reason. I turn more and more to the old self, the buried self, the one that's "wild with years" when I am in need of understanding. Often in the workings of a poem the body and one's trust in the wisdom of the body supervenes, and one recognizes that reason itself is not the ultimate gift of humanity. Certainly it is one of the instruments of civilization; but body, spirit, the reason beyond reason, are the instruments of transcendence.

An NPR interview of Stanley Kunitz and his concept, "Wisdom of the Body" was the source of the title of my program at Clear Spring School and of this blog.

About Me

I have been a self-employed woodworker in Eureka Springs, Arkansas since 1976. I live with my wife Jean on a wooded hillside overlooking our beautiful historic community.
In addition to work in my wood shop, I teach children at the Clear Spring School in a program called "The Wisdom of the Hands." My 10th and 11th books, Tiny Boxes by Taunton Press and Making Classic Toys that Teach were published in November 2016. I also write for Fine Woodworking and other woodworking magazines.
My resume can be downloaded at
www.dougstowe.com/resume.doc